Educator Workshop: The Design of Discovery

The competition to name a crater on Mercury in honor of your favorite artist has closed.

Visit the competition website to learn more about how craters on Mercury are named and (at the end of March/early April) who the winners are: [HERE]

Water ice on the planet closest to the Sun?! How could this be?

Explore the data and see for yourself...

Explore the actual data that led to this surprising conclusion [HERE]!

Three independent lines of evidence support this conclusion: the first measurements of excess hydrogen at Mercury’s north pole with MESSENGER’s Neutron Spectrometer, the first measurements of the reflectance of Mercury’s polar deposits at near-infrared wavelengths with the Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA), and the first detailed models of the surface and near-surface temperatures of Mercury’s north polar regions that utilize the actual topography of Mercury’s surface measured by MLA. These findings are presented in three papers published online in Science Express [HERE].

Given its proximity to the Sun, Mercury would seem to be an unlikely place to find ice. But the tilt of Mercury’s rotational axis is almost zero — less than one degree — so there are pockets at the planet’s poles that never see sunlight. Scientists suggested decades ago that there might be water ice and other frozen volatiles trapped at Mercury’s poles. Peak inside these shadowed craters [HERE]. See how the Sun illuminates (or doesn’t illuminate!) these craters [HERE].

Images from MESSENGER’s Mercury Dual Imaging System taken in 2011 and early 2012 confirmed that radar-bright features at Mercury’s north and south poles are within shadowed regions on Mercury’s surface, findings that are consistent with the water-ice hypothesis. See it for yourself [HERE] or [HERE].

Now the newest data from MESSENGER strongly indicate that water ice is the major constituent of Mercury’s north polar deposits, that ice is exposed at the surface in the coldest of those deposits, but that the ice is buried beneath an unusually dark material across most of the deposits, areas where temperatures are a bit too warm for ice to be stable at the surface itself. Look at the modeled temperatures at Mercury’s poles [HERE].

About the MESSENGER Education and Public Outreach website

In developing this site, educators, scientists, and engineers are working together to bring the exciting science of MESSENGER to everyone. Here you will find a wealth of resources about the planet Mercury and about the MESSENGER mission. If you are a student or teacher make sure you check out the special sections containing educational materials and opportunities.